Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

May 2007

D.C. Gun Grabbers Foiled Again!

Off to the Supreme Court for the Washington D.C. Gun Ban:

A federal appeals court May 8 denied a petition by D.C. officials to reconsider a March ruling that overturned the District`s 30-year-old gun ban. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 6-4 to deny the District`s request that the entire court review a previous ruling in which a three-judge panel found some of the District`s gun restrictions to be unconstitutional.

What I want to know is Why aren’t D.C. residents allowed to get guns now? Their gun-grabbing law has been declared UNCONSTITUTIONAL! TWICE!

Update: These two articles discuss the next steps for D.C. and the effects on gun owners:

09 May 2007 by Firearms Judiciary Law and Order

Police Cannot Police Society

badge714.gifSome time ago, our neighbor’s adult children would throw wild parties, attended by scores if not hundreds of people that were noisy, inconsiderate and littered the street with food and drink containers.

When we called the police, they would sometimes respond, but the problem persisted. To make a long story short, we contacted an arbitration service who conducted a meeting between us and the neighbor; after we met and exchanged grievances, the neighbor agreed to stop after I enumerated a long list of incidents and threatened a lawsuit. Basically, we had to do it ourselves.

None of the events above were life-threatening, although some of the young adults made threats against us. We decided to acquire even more home protection than we already had.

The police’s ability to intervene on the behalf of the law-abiding will get worse before it gets better.

Here’s another case of having to do it yourself as told by Mike Adams to a reporter at The Athens (Ohio) News (excerpt):

Continue reading…

08 May 2007 by Firearms Law and Order

USPS Jedi Master Mailbox

r2d2-post.jpgWhile taking my after-lunch walk today, I saw this mailbox painted up to resemble R2D2. Apparently, there is a contest underway to select which Star Wars character gets depicted on a stamp. Yoda is ahead. Click the image for a full-sized view.

From the Washington Post:

Under cover of night, officials at the USPS stealthily deposited 400 of the costumed letterboxes on high-traffic street corners nationwide — about a dozen in the Washington area — to promote a new line of postage stamps. They unbolted mailboxes from sidewalks and replaced them with ones decked in decorative adhesive panels.

The switcheroo, carried out March 16, was intended as a teaser until the new postage design was announced.

The 41-cent stamps — the rate is going up May 14 — were unveiled Wednesday in Hollywood to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars phenomenon. You know the one. And if you don’t, well, that sort of admission will find you subject to all sorts of derision.

07 May 2007 by Culture Photography

Star Jasmine

Sometimes called “confederate jasmine,” this beautiful and energetic evergreen vine creates a special scene all through the year as it climbs up a trellis in the back yard. During March and April the plant flushes light green with new growth. Shortly thereafter, delicate white pinwheel flowers breathe their enchanting fragrance into the spring air.

jasmine

06 May 2007 by California Home & Garden Photography

Saturday Sunflower

One of the floral decorations in the house this week is a sunflower bouquet.

sunflower

Sunflowers are native to the Americas. There is some debate about where the sunflower was first domesticated. The earliest known examples of a fully domesticated sunflower were found at the Hayes site in Tennessee that date back to around 2300 B.C. There were also other remains found at the Olmec site of San Andrés dating some time before 2100 B.C. The Incas used the sunflower as an image of their sun god. Gold images of the flower, as well as seeds, were taken back to Europe early in the 16th century.

05 May 2007 by Home & Garden Photography

Don’t Fall For That Old “RedEye Mind Trick”

Carbon Offsets are shaping up to be the new “Ponzi Scheme” in America where the first investors flourish and the last investors get conned out of their cash.

From Financial Times via Hot Air.

Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on ‘carbon credit’ projects that yield few if any environmental benefits.

A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.

Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway.

The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a ‘green gold rush’, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go ‘carbon neutral’, offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming.

04 May 2007 by Global Warming Humor Whacko Politics

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